Consumers spend billions of dollars on bottled and canned beverages each year. The market for beer alone is in excess of $100 billion dollars, and more than 40 billion dollars of bottled water is sold year. Bottles may be made of glass, plastic or other materials. Cans are made of a variety of recyclable metals.
Most beverages are consumed in social settings, such as parties, bars, restaurants, and other events.
Beverage coolers (including chests, buckets, pails and other storage devices) are generally used by consumers to store and serve bottled beverages in settings where ice, rather than standard refrigeration, must be used to cool bottled and canned beverages. Chests are desirable because they hold a quantity of beverages and may be insulated or constructed to serve as portable refrigerators. Buckets (e.g., champagne buckets) may be ornamental or easy to transport. They are generally constructed with handles and prevent leaking of melting ice.
Coolers made of Styrofoam™ or other inexpensive materials are frequently sold at the point-of-purchase for these beverages. Additionally, beer and wine cooling devices are sold at retail outlets and command considerable shelf space in seasonal and non-seasonal markets. Coolers are profitable items for which competition is intense. For example, Walmart™ alone carries several dozen coolers in its stores simultaneously.
The cost of coolers and beer buckets can range from a few dollars to more than $80.00 to $100.00. Generally, Styrofoam™ containers dominate the low cost market and are sold at point-of-purchase. In addition, they are lightweight and stackable.
However, Styrofoam™ is environmentally hazardous, flakes easily and is unattractive to display. Styrofoam® is also not a material which is attractive for consumers to re-use and Styrofoam™ coolers are discarded at a high rate because of these issues, resulting in a short useful life.
Cooler and bucket devices known in the art also take up storage space, making it impractical to keep a number of devices on hand for occasional use (e.g., for parties, picnics or barbeques). Collapsible coolers directed at this problem are known in the art, but are cumbersome and often prone to mildew because they have numerous crevices.
In addition, the rectangular and/or rounded design of traditional coolers and buckets is not adapted for retail sale environments or for consumers who have not previously intended to purchase a cooler. Traditional chest-type coolers and buckets lack the visual appeal necessary for consumers to consider them as a point-of-purchase item (e.g., displayed near a register with limited counter space).
Additionally, the market is relatively untapped for consumers who want small receptacles for cooling and transporting beverages in the most popularly sold quantities: 6 packs, 12 packs, 24 packs and 30 packs.
Users of traditional coolers and buckets also need to manually push aside wet ice cubes to find a bottle. When multiple types of beverages are stored in a cooler, a user must lift the bottles out of the cooler in order to read the label.
It is desirable to have a device which makes beverages visible for selection based on a user's preference and easy for a user to grasp without the need for the user to grope through ice and cold water.
Little attention has been given to optimizing the geometric configuration of coolers and buckets so that less ice may be used, cooling efficiency may be optimized, and the weight of transporting the apparatus may be reduced.
Traditional coolers and buckets are not adapted for display and use on tables, buffets, and at other events, and their design does not encourage consumers to re-use them. Coolers and buckets look out of place on serving tables, rather than blend into the serving décor.